Today, not only traditional personal computers and mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, support dynamic installation of applications. Also devices under NSP management (NSP: Network Service Provider), such as broadband gateways and set top boxes, support application life-cycle management, i.e. the process of dynamically (at any point in time) installing, updating and uninstalling applications.
As an example, the Broadband Forum TR-069 CPE WAN Management Protocol (TR-069 Amendment 3 or later) defines a protocol that allows a so-called ACS (ACS: Auto Configuration Server) to dynamically install applications, also referred to as software components, on a CPE device (CPE: Customer Premises Equipment), such as a gateway, a router or a set top box.
European patent application EP 2 184 904 describes a state of the art TR-069 system for performing application life-cycle management on the same device while keeping track of cross-execution environment dependencies, e.g. OSGi (OSGi: Open Services Gateway initiative) and native Linux, as well as service subscription and configuration of needed applications.
With the spread of more popular smartphones and tablets people are becoming aware of the so-called application stores and get familiar with searching for and installing applications on these devices. However, people are less aware and familiar with the fact that also other devices may support dynamic installation of components.
In addition, there is a trend towards ever more network connected devices and a number of services come with applications for phone or tablet.
Furthermore, multi-screen applications and services are becoming increasingly popular, whereby, for example, video content displayed on a TV is supported by tablet applications providing additional information. Such solutions often depend on a set of applications running on multiple devices, so called “distributed applications”.